


Long Distance II

by kylermalloy



Series: Tumblr Prompts [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Jack is lonely, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Season/Series 14, Tumblr Prompt, and they don't help each other, no comfort, sam is anxious, they're like ships passing in the night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26368288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kylermalloy/pseuds/kylermalloy
Summary: Sam misses Dean. Jack misses Sam.Named for thepoem of the same title.
Relationships: Jack Kline & Sam Winchester
Series: Tumblr Prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916092
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	Long Distance II

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr, for the prompt: "the things you said when you were scared."

“I never wanted all this. All these people. I didn’t…I can’t deal with them.”

Jack freezes, his hand locking around the doorknob to Sam’s room.

Sam’s voice is so hollow. Thin. Barely more than a whisper. Through the crack in the door, Jack can see Sam’s back, his head bowed over the phone he holds to his ear.

“When I saw Nick today, I just…his face. I practically ran. Cas won’t…or Mom, or Jack. There’s nobody else here who’ll even try to—” Sam runs a hand through his hair, leaving it standing on end.

Jack barely dares breathe. He came to Sam’s room hoping for some reassurance, some small gesture to anchor him. Jack’s awash in a sea of new human experiences, and he needs someone’s hand to hold him down.

But tonight, Sam seems adrift in his own troubles.

“There is so...much. Going on. I don’t know what to do. There’s so much to do, and I’m doing it all wrong. So many people are depending on me, and I don’t want them to. I’m alone. I don’t know where you are. It scares me so f—” Sam bites off the end of his sentence, his breathing loud and shaky.

The words root Jack’s feet to the ground, locking him in place. Sam doesn’t get scared. That is, Sam doesn’t admit he’s scared. That’s just not something that happens. Sam swallows his fear and fights Lucifer, and picks Jack up from the church floor and cleans the blood from his stomach, and searches for Dean, and always asks Jack if he’s okay—false cheer in his voice and all.

But what scares Sam is looking after people. People depending on him.

Jack depending on him.

As the silence stretches on, his phone begins speaking, the automated female voice too loud and cheery.

_ “Press 1 to send voicemail. Press 2 to delete voicemail and re-record. Press—” _

Sam lowers the phone from his ear. He stares at the screen mournfully before his thumb moves.  _ “Voicemail deleted,” _ his phone chirps.

Just like that, no one will ever know how Sam feels.

Except Jack.

Blood thunders in his ears. He’s still frozen when Sam walks jerkily to his door and pulls it open.

His eyes widen. He stiffens, shoulders tensing in a frozen posture that mirrors Jack’s.

“Jack, you…”  _ You heard. _

Jack’s mouth falls open, and he feels the urge to look away, shield his face. He feels like he’s seen something deeply private. Like he’s violated Sam in some way.

“I…” He can’t lie to Sam.

Sam’s brows pinch up and together in an expression that makes him look a thousand years old and simultaneously, very, very young.

“I’m sorry,” Sam says. (He says that a lot.) “I didn’t mean…I’m sorry, Jack.”

He brushes past Jack without any of his usual reassuring touches—no hand on his shoulder, no gentle pat on the cheek, no ruffling of his hair. Nothing.

Jack watches him go. Already he can feel his lungs filling up with water, and he’ll probably spend the night gasping for air.

His voice is soft, maybe too soft for Sam to hear. But he pushes the words out anyway.

“You’re not doing it all wrong.”

_ You can’t be. You are all I know. I learned everything from you—and I didn’t turn out so bad. _

_ Did I? _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Let me know what you thought - comments feed my SOUL. I'm on [tumblr](https://kylermalloy.tumblr.com) too, hop over and say hi!


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